Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/80

58 The antechapel where the statue stood

Of Newton with his prism and silent face,

The marble index of a mind for ever

Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.

Of College labours, of the Lecturer's room

All studded round, as thick as chairs could stand,

With loyal students faithful to their books,

Half-and-half idlers, hardy recusants,

And honest dunces—of important days,

Examinations, when the man was weighed

As in a balance! of excessive hopes,

Tremblings withal and commendable fears,

Small jealousies, and triumphs good or bad,

Let others that know more speak as they know.

Such glory was but little sought by me,

And little won. Yet from the first crude days

Of settling time in this untried abode,

I was disturbed at times by prudent thoughts,

Wishing to hope without a hope, some fears

About my future worldly maintenance,

And, more than all, a strangeness in the mind,

A feeling that I was not for that hour,

Nor for that place. But wherefore be cast down?

For (not to speak of Reason and her pure